Copyright 2010 The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, February 8th, 2010
“You feel like the blood has been drained out of your body.” This is how prominent South Florida events impresario and restaurateur Barton G. Weiss described his reaction to the news that his precious newborn daughter had been born profoundly deaf. He looked at his daughter, he said, and just wanted to cry. “This child is sitting here helpless. She can’t hear. She has been robbed of life’s most precious gift - and that’s hearing. What do you do?”
Weiss’s search to provide his daughter with the best chance of success in a hearing world led him to the promise of cochlear implants and to Dr. Thomas J. Balkany, Hotchkiss Professor of Otolaryngology and Director, University of Miami Ear Institute, as one of the world’s most foremost authorities on them. As a result of bilateral cochlear implants, at seven and ten months respectively, Weiss’s daughter is now a chatty and precocious three-year-old, verbally conversant and well on her way to a life of sound and speech.
More than 12,000 babies are born deaf in the US each year, making it the most common birth anomaly. Inspired by his own experience and wanting to help other parents who may have little knowledge about hearing impairment, Weiss launched The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting in the health and continuing education of hearing-challenged children and their families, with an emphasis on the viability of cochlear implants and essential auditory-verbal therapy as a viable option for deaf children to become part of the hearing world.
The coming year promises to be an exciting one for the Foundation. To help fulfill a critical need for resources for the hearing-challenged, the Foundation will establish a Miami-based family resource center. The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Cochlear Implant Resource Center will help children and their families navigate the pathway through the pre- and post-diagnosis phases of hearing loss, cochlear implant surgery and vital aftercare. Auditory-verbal therapy for patients will be a focus of the Center, which will also concentrate on training parents and teachers in how to support cochlear children with the lifelong habilitation required after initial diagnosis. Enfolding a parent resource library, the Center will be a premier ‘go to’ place for children, parents, teachers and the public to get answers to questions about hearing loss, find out how to contact people who can help, where to get services, information and more.
On April 24, 2010 in Miami, the Foundation will hold a gala event to raise funds for the Resource Center and provide financial support of a cochlear implantation for a needy child. True to Barton G.’s reputation for innovation, the gala is sure to be hailed as a new cultural vanguard.
“You feel like the blood has been drained out of your body.” This is how prominent South Florida events impresario and restaurateur Barton G. Weiss described his reaction to the news that his precious newborn daughter had been born profoundly deaf. He looked at his daughter, he said, and just wanted to cry. “This child is sitting here helpless. She can’t hear. She has been robbed of life’s most precious gift - and that’s hearing. What do you do?”
Weiss’s search to provide his daughter with the best chance of success in a hearing world led him to the promise of cochlear implants and to Dr. Thomas J. Balkany, Hotchkiss Professor of Otolaryngology and Director, University of Miami Ear Institute, as one of the world’s most foremost authorities on them. As a result of bilateral cochlear implants, at seven and ten months respectively, Weiss’s daughter is now a chatty and precocious three-year-old, verbally conversant and well on her way to a life of sound and speech.
More than 12,000 babies are born deaf in the US each year, making it the most common birth anomaly. Inspired by his own experience and wanting to help other parents who may have little knowledge about hearing impairment, Weiss launched The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting in the health and continuing education of hearing-challenged children and their families, with an emphasis on the viability of cochlear implants and essential auditory-verbal therapy as a viable option for deaf children to become part of the hearing world.
The coming year promises to be an exciting one for the Foundation. To help fulfill a critical need for resources for the hearing-challenged, the Foundation will establish a Miami-based family resource center. The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Cochlear Implant Resource Center will help children and their families navigate the pathway through the pre- and post-diagnosis phases of hearing loss, cochlear implant surgery and vital aftercare. Auditory-verbal therapy for patients will be a focus of the Center, which will also concentrate on training parents and teachers in how to support cochlear children with the lifelong habilitation required after initial diagnosis. Enfolding a parent resource library, the Center will be a premier ‘go to’ place for children, parents, teachers and the public to get answers to questions about hearing loss, find out how to contact people who can help, where to get services, information and more.
On April 24, 2010 in Miami, the Foundation will hold a gala event to raise funds for the Resource Center and provide financial support of a cochlear implantation for a needy child. True to Barton G.’s reputation for innovation, the gala is sure to be hailed as a new cultural vanguard.
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